battery
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle FrenchCategory:English terms borrowed from Middle French#BATTERYCategory:English terms derived from Middle French#BATTERY batterie, from Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#BATTERY baterie (“action of beating”), from batre (“beat”), from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#BATTERY battuō (“beat”), from GaulishCategory:English terms derived from Gaulish#BATTERY. Doublet of batterieCategory:English doublets#BATTERY. By surface analysis, batterCategory:English links with manual fragments#BATTERY + -yCategory:English terms suffixed with -y (abstract noun)#BATTERY.
The electrical sense was coined by American polymath Benjamin FranklinCategory:English terms coined by Benjamin Franklin#BATTERYCategory:English coinages#BATTERY by analogy with a military battery that his series of Leyden jars resembled.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈbæt.(ə)ɹi/, (except sense 3) /ˈbæt͡ʃɹi/Category:English 3-syllable words#BATTERYCategory:English 2-syllable words#BATTERYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BATTERY
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈbæt.əɹi/, [ˈbæɾə.ɹi]Category:English 3-syllable words#BATTERYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BATTERY
- (Indic) IPA(key): /ˈbaʈ.(ə)ri/Category:English 3-syllable words#BATTERYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BATTERY
- Hyphenation: bat‧te‧ry
- Rhymes: -ætəɹi, -ætɹiCategory:Rhymes:English/ætəɹi#BATTERYCategory:Rhymes:English/ætəɹi/2 syllables#BATTERYCategory:Rhymes:English/ætɹi#BATTERYCategory:Rhymes:English/ætɹi/2 syllables#BATTERY
Noun

battery (countable and uncountable, plural batteries)Category:English lemmas#BATTERYCategory:English nouns#BATTERYCategory:English uncountable nouns#BATTERYCategory:English countable nouns#BATTERYCategory:English countable nouns#BATTERYCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#BATTERYCategory:Pages with entries#BATTERYCategory:Pages with 1 entry#BATTERY
- (electricityCategory:en:Electricity#BATTERY, electronicsCategory:en:Electronics#BATTERY, countableCategory:English countable nouns#BATTERY) A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells.
- alkaline batteryCategory:English terms with collocations#BATTERY; sodium-ion batteryCategory:English terms with collocations#BATTERY; lead-acid batteryCategory:English terms with collocations#BATTERY
- His flashlight takes two AA batteries.Category:English terms with usage examples#BATTERY
- His car takes a 550-CCA lead-acid battery.Category:English terms with usage examples#BATTERY
- 2010, Phillip J. Boucher, The Complete Guide to Canada's General Mobile Radio Service, Phillip J. Boucher, →ISBN, page 42:
- For GMRS [General Mobile Radio Service], rechargeable packs alone do not provide the flexibility that user replaceable batteries can. For instance, once the pack is discharged, it must be placed in the charger and recharged, which can take from one to several hours, leaving you unable to use your radio until the pack is recharged unless you have purchased an extra pack. Extra battery packs are bulky and pricey. With radios using replaceable AA and AAA batteries, you never have to worry about recharging or buying extra packs. You can carry charged replacement batteries in your pocket, purse, or bag, and in an emergency you can even go to a store and buy some alkaline batteries so you can be up and running again.Category:English terms with quotations#BATTERY
- (originally and sometimes still, strictly) Such a device that has multiple cells.
- Her phone needs a new battery because its present battery no longer holds a charge well.Category:English terms with usage examples#BATTERY
- 1749 Benjamin Franklin, letter to Peter Collinson
- Upon this We made what we call’d an Electrical Battery, consisting of eleven Panes of large Sash Glass, arm’d with thin leaden Plates, pasted on each Side...
- A Turky is to be killed for our Dinners by the Electrical Shock; and roasted by the electrical Jack, before a Fire kindled by the Electrified Bottle; when the Healths of all the Famous Electricians in England, France and Germany, are to be drank in Electrified Bumpers, under the Discharge of Guns from the Electrical Battery.
- 2012, John Karsnitz et al., Engineering Design: An Introduction, page 364:
- [For his experiments with electricity,] Benjamin Franklin utilized Leyden jars and referred to several jars hooked together as a battery (after a "battery" of cannon).Category:English terms with quotations#BATTERY
- 2012, Christian Glaize, Sylvie Genies, Lead and Nickel Electrochemical Batteries, page 6:
- [The voltage of a single cell is] too low for most applications [... so] a series of cells will be used to obtain the desired voltage – a "battery" of cells, in the strictest sense of the term.Category:English terms with quotations#BATTERY
- (metonymicCategory:English metonyms#BATTERY, informalCategory:English informal terms#BATTERY, uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#BATTERY) The energy stored in such a device.
- Her phone did not have enough battery for another phone call.Category:English terms with usage examples#BATTERY
- A: How much battery do you have left? B: Only 63%.Category:English terms with usage examples#BATTERY
- (lawCategory:en:Law#BATTERY) The infliction of unlawful physical violence on a person, legally distinguished from assault, which involves the threat of impending violence.
- Hypernym: violence
- Holonym: assault and battery
- Comeronym: assault
- Coordinate term: assault
- 2003, Mike Molan, Modern Criminal Law, 5th edition, 7.2.2-3, pages 221–222:
- […] A battery is the actual infliction of unlawful personal violence. […] [The defendant] fell to the ground and lashed out with his feet and in doing so kicked the hand of one of the police officers, fracturing a bone. He was charged with assault […] although this was a battery.Category:English terms with quotations#BATTERY
- 2023 May 9, Lola Fadulu, “New York law gave jurors three types of battery to consider in the Trump case.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- He offered three types of battery for which Mr. Trump might be liable under New York law: rape, sexual abuse and forcible touching.Category:English terms with quotations#BATTERY
- 2024 September 28, Harry Blank, “Not Ready for Prime Time”, in Deadlined, →ISBN, page 604:
- An order asserted itself, and the hoods on the furnaces were oped wide, and a final march was organized. The wails of the injured and the roars of the dead-on-the-march overwhelmed the tinny speakers in the cell, and they all watched as nearly one thousand people reduced themselves to a few frantic hundred in less than an hour, then settled into a sustained orgy of battery, rapine and rape with no end in sight but the total depopulation of the entire facility.Category:English terms with quotations#BATTERY
- (militaryCategory:en:Military#BATTERY, countableCategory:English countable nouns#BATTERY) A coordinated group of artillery weapons, with any of various numbers of guns.
- Outside the ancient fort, you can still see worn areas in the stone where the batteries were once placed.Category:English terms with usage examples#BATTERY
- Such a group of a certain size (number of guns and artillerists), within a schema of military unit organization.
- They sent four batteries southward in an attempt to shore up the defenses around the depot.Category:English terms with usage examples#BATTERY
- 2005, Barry Leonard, Field Artillery in Military Operations Other Than War, page 20:
- the marines had six 8-inch howitzers, eight 4.2-inch mortars, and three 105-mm howitzer batteries, each with six pieces.Category:English terms with quotations#BATTERY
- (historicalCategory:English terms with historical senses#BATTERY, archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BATTERY) An elevated platform on which cannon could be placed.
- 2015, Justin S. Solonick, Engineering Victory: The Union Siege of Vicksburg, pages 142–143:
- The construction of advanced batteries mirrored that of those built along the line of circumvallation. [...] Although Mahan demanded that batteries be constructed to exacting dimensions and revetted with gabions, fascines, and sandbags, at Vicksburg the resources at hand determined what materials soldiers used to build what they termed artillery "forts".Category:English terms with quotations#BATTERY
- 1780, John Robertson et al., The Elements of Navigation, page 53:
- such forts being so contrived as to have two or three batteries, one higher than the other, furnished with many cannon.Category:English terms with quotations#BATTERY
- 1776, Charles Carroll, Brantz Mayer, Journal of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, page 97:
- His grand battery was as badly provided with cannon as his little battery, for not a single gun was mounted on either.Category:English terms with quotations#BATTERY
- 1766, John Entick, A New and Accurate History and Survey of London, page 337:
- On this wharf [Tower Bridge wharf] there is a long and beautiful platform, on which are planted 61 pieces of cannon [...] Devil's Battery, where is also a platform, on which are mounted seven pieces of cannon, although on the battery itself there are only five.Category:English terms with quotations#BATTERY
- An array of similar things.
- Schoolchildren take a battery of standard tests to measure their progress.Category:English terms with usage examples#BATTERY
- A set of small cages where hens are kept for the purpose of farming their eggs.
- 2000, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, London: Penguin Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 403:
- ‘Do you know how battery chickens live?’Category:English terms with quotations#BATTERY
- (baseballCategory:en:Baseball#BATTERY) The catcher and the pitcher together
- (chessCategory:en:Chess#BATTERY) Two or more pieces working together on the same rank, file, or diagonal
- (musicCategory:en:Music#BATTERY) A marching percussion ensemble; the section of the drumline that marches on the field during a performance.
- The state of a firearm or cannon when it is possible to be fired.
- in batteryCategory:English terms with collocations#BATTERY; out of batteryCategory:English terms with collocations#BATTERY
- In this circumstance, you will have to rack the slide to get back in battery.Category:English terms with usage examples#BATTERY
- (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BATTERY) Apparatus for preparing or serving meals.
Usage notes
The electrical sense (sense 1) originated in the precise distinction between a single cell and a battery of cells (that is, a collected set of cells), but that distinction is not upheld in current general usage: any such device, of one or more cells, is now called a battery in casual usage and is seldom called a cell except formally in technical usage.
Hyponyms
- A23 battery
- AAAA cell battery
- AAA cell battery
- AA cell battery
- A battery
- accessory battery
- alkaline battery
- atomic battery
- automobile battery
- automotive battery
- B battery
- biobattery
- car battery
- C battery
- counterbattery
- D battery
- diagonal battery
- dry cell battery
- flow battery
- jackass battery
- leisure battery
- linear battery
- lithium battery
- lithium ion battery, lithium-ion battery
- lithium titanate oxide battery
- local battery
- LTO battery
- magnetic battery
- mignon battery
- nanobattery
- nuclear battery
- Planté battery
- PP3 battery
- sand battery
- social battery
- sodium-ion battery
- solar battery
- solid-state battery
- stamp battery
- starter battery
- storage battery
- suicide battery
- superbattery
- thermobattery
- traction battery
- voltaic battery
- watch battery
- water battery
- zinc-carbon battery
Derived terms
- antibattery
- assault and battery
- batteried
- batteries-included
- battery acid
- battery-backed
- battery backup
- battery booster
- battery cage
- battery cell
- battery charger
- battery-electric
- battery electric multiple unit
- battery electric vehicle
- battery hen
- battery-included
- batteryless
- battery life
- batterylike
- battery mate
- battery memory
- battery-operated
- battery pack
- battery power
- battery-powered
- change one's battery
- counter-battery
- cross-battery
- electric battery
- in battery
- lazy battery effect
- lithium battery
- nonbattery
- out of battery, out-of-battery
- recharge one's battery
- unmask one's batteries
Descendants
Translations
Category:Entries with translation boxes#BATTERY
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